Planted Struggle.

[chelsiethegreat]

okay.. so its been a week since my first water change and ever since then my water has stayed cloudy. i have 7 guppies in a 10 gallon tank, an argentine sword plant, and what i belive to be a golden grass plant. my argentine sword was on deaths doorstep until some flourish tabs are hopefully bringing it back. ( seeing as how there is a lot of new growth in the roots and some leaves.. ) my water tests come out good but it just doesn't seem to be clearing up.... any ideas?

 

[fluttermoth]

It's most probably a bacterial bloom, very common in new tanks and will clear up on it's own.

Was your tank cycled before you aded fish? What are the actual numbers from your tests? 'Good' isn't enough information for us to work on

 

[chelsiethegreat]

i cycled it about 2 weeks before i put any fish in it and it was clear until my 1st water change.. i tested at a local pet store and they said that everything came out normal then only thing that was a little high was my ammonia level and that was just barely.. its not getting any better, its just keeps getting greener.. i had plans to do a 20 percent change and use a gravel vaccuma and a scrub pad to wash the algae off the sides of the tank... should i not?

 

[phoenixgsd]

i cycled it about 2 weeks before i put any fish in it and it was clear until my 1st water change..

I think you'll find your tank hasnt yet cycled 2 weeks isnt long enough unless your doing a fish in cycle, what substrate do you have, did you thouroughly clean it? is it possible when you did your water change you disturbed the substrate and it hasnt settled yet also any trace of ammonia is leathal to your fish

 

[chelsiethegreat]

well, i cycled two weeks with no fish.. but i had bought the tank and everything with it direcly from a friend and i used the filter she was useing for the first two weeks to help move things along.. as as for the substrate, small pebbles, which i rinsed and strained really good before putting them in..

 

[phoenixgsd]

i had bought the tank and everything with it direcly from a friend and i used the filter she was useing for the first two weeks to help move things along..

are you saying you only used the filter for the first two weeks then changed it or have i misunderstood

 

[chelsiethegreat]

i used it for the first two weeks of a fishless cycle (but my friend had been using it for a while before that, i took it straight from her house and set it up at mine.).. and the first week with fish in .. a few days after the first tank change i put in the new one..

 

[Rummynose]

If you have ammonia in your water then your tank is not yet cycled.

If you changed the filter (media) then you threw away all the good bacteria that makes the tank being a cycled tank.

Basically you are now cycling all over again with fish in the tank.

You will need to check your ammonia daily, sometimes more than once. The fish will produce the ammonia which will stay in the water since you don't have any bacteria to convert it into NitrAte, and the only way to remove the ammonia is to change a lot of water, often!!!

You will need an ammonia test kit (the liquid kind with the test tubes) so you can keep the ammonia readings as close to 0 as you can. Ammonia burns the fish's gills, it damages their organs and can cause death. Any readings of over .25 are harmful!

 

[chelsiethegreat]

well, the reason why i decided to change the filter was because it was pumping really cloudy water into the tank. but today i did almost a 50 percent change and used my gravel vacuum really thoroughly.. i took out the one plant that i found to be not aquatic and got a mystery snail to help with the algae. i also invested in some better water conditioner that also removes ammonia stableizes the ph, and declhorinzes .. i think its gonna be good. thanks for the advice

 

[phoenixgsd]

well, the reason why i decided to change the filter was because it was pumping really cloudy water into the tank. but today i did almost a 50 percent change and used my gravel vacuum really thoroughly.. i took out the one plant that i found to be not aquatic and got a mystery snail to help with the algae. i also invested in some better water conditioner that also removes ammonia stableizes the ph, and declhorinzes .. i think its gonna be good. thanks for the advice

did you take the filter apart and clean it in tank water, not under the tap, it might have been a bit clogged? but as you have a new filter, as rummy has said, you will have to start your cycle from scratch with a fish in cycle, there is a step to step guide on here you can refer too

 

[Aqua Tom]

well, the reason why i decided to change the filter was because it was pumping really cloudy water into the tank. but today i did almost a 50 percent change and used my gravel vacuum really thoroughly.. i took out the one plant that i found to be not aquatic and got a mystery snail to help with the algae. i also invested in some better water conditioner that also removes ammonia stableizes the ph, and declhorinzes .. i think its gonna be good. thanks for the advice

did you take the filter apart and clean it in tank water, not under the tap, it might have been a bit clogged? but as you have a new filter, as rummy has said, you will have to start your cycle from scratch with a fish in cycle, there is a step to step guide on here you can refer too

Ok, it looks like you are in a fish-in-cycle. What are your water perameters?



Tom

 

[chelsiethegreat]

everything normal besides my kh.. which has always been low. ammonia at 0